James Franco Accused Of Sexual Misconduct By Five Women

The L.A. Times published an article on Thursday detailing allegations by five women that Franco behaved inappropriately towards them.

Golden Globe winner James Franco has now been accused of sexual misconduct by five women – including four students and a former mentee – in a new report.

The 39 year old actor’s spokesperson has denied the fresh allegations, which were published on Thursday morning (January 11th) by the Los Angeles Times.

In addition to his Hollywood career, which has seen him star in blockbusters such as the Spider-Man trilogy and Rise of the Planet of the Apes in addition to acclaimed indie flicks such as Milk and Eat Pray Love, Franco has also been a teacher. He taught at Playhouse West in North Hollywood before opening his own film school, Studio 4, which has since gone out of operation.

James Franco has been accused of sexual misconduct by five women

One of the women to come forward, and who also took to Twitter last weekend to call Franco out after his Golden Globe win for The Disaster Artist, is actress Sarah Tither-Kaplan. “I feel there was an abuse of power, and there was a culture of exploiting non-celebrity women, and a culture of women being replaceable," she said.

Another of the women quoted in the article is actress Hilary Dusome, who studied under Franco at Playhouse West five years ago. She claims that Franco walked off the set of one of his “art films” when other actresses who had signed up to work on the project with him refused to take off their shirts for a scene.

“I felt like I was selected for something based on my hard work and my merit, and when I realized it was because I have nice [breasts], it was pretty clear that was not the case,” Dusome said. “I don't think he started teaching with bad intentions, but he went down a bad path and damaged a lot of people in the process.”

Franco's attorney, Michael Plonsker, has since individually denied each of the five women's allegations.

Franco had attracted criticism at the Golden Globes for wearing a ‘Time’s Up’ pin in support of the sexual assault awareness campaign – with many women online claiming that he had sexually harassed them.